


Nothing Nice to Say

by LovesBitca8



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Office, Ben Solo is a Mess, Boss/Employee Relationship, F/M, Office Sex, Oral Sex, Praise Kink, compliments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-13 02:49:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19242295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LovesBitca8/pseuds/LovesBitca8
Summary: Notorious asshole Ben Solo loses a bet at the office. He must begin every conversation with complementary things to his employees, or else they are not required to respond to him. He hasn't said anything at all to Rey, and she wonders why. Modern AU.





	Nothing Nice to Say

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Reylo Fic Prompts on Twitter for inspiring this!  
> This is unbeta'd and rather PWP-y, so have fun!

It was only 10AM and it already looked like Ben Solo was sweating. Rey snickered into her notepad as he pushed his hair back from his face, frowning as he took in Poe's eager expression.

"Mr. Dameron," he said. "Do you have anything to report on—"

"I'm sorry, what?" Poe batted his lashes at him. "Is someone speaking to me? Directly to me?"

The room vibrated with suppressed laughter. Rey watched as Poe cupped a hand to his ear and leaned toward Ben.

Ben frowned down at the conference room table, swallowed, and said, "Mr. Dameron. What a lovely shade of black you're wearing. Do you have anything to report—"

Rose let out a cackle next to Rey, and the room started giggling.

"—so bad at this!" Rose muttered into Rey's shoulder, hiding her grin behind her knuckles.

Rey bit her lip and smiled up at Ben Solo who was frowning deeply at the two of them. He grit out, "That was a perfectly acceptable positive commentary on his appearance, personality, or work ethic—"

"A  _compliment_ , Solo! It's called a  _compliment!_ " Finn burst out from next to Poe, and even Gwen let out a smile.

Rey watched with a laugh on her lips as Ben pouted, glaring down at the table from where he stood at the head of it. It had only been an hour and twelve minutes since the start of the day and he already looked like he was going to crack.

It started last week with playful ribbing from Poe and surly growling from Ben. Poe announced last Monday that he had a meeting with the Garbers, an account that had been eluding the company for some time. In the midst of the wishes of best luck for him, Ben had said, "Try not to fuck it up like the Millers," as he sipped his black coffee from the corner of the break room.

"Solo, why don't you ever have anything nice to say," Poe had snapped, shaking his head at him.

"I'm not here to be nice. I'm here to manage."

"Well  _manage_  your way out the door," Poe had huffed. "If I get the Garber account, I better hear a compliment from you."

"You won't get the account."

"You wanna put money on it, Solo?"

And that's how it had started. Sulky, eternally brooding Ben Solo had entered into a bet with Poe Dameron that should he land the account, Ben would have to begin every direct conversation with a compliment. For an entire week.

Rey had laughed initially, sipping her frothy drink topped with whipped cream as they shook on it. Ben was... not always pleasant. He'd been put in charge while his mother had gone on sabbatical, so while he was not  _really_  their superior, they  _were_  working under him.

A fact which he loved to remind people of.

Rey watched his ears turn pink as the room laughed, a delightful little detail she'd started noticing a few months ago, usually when someone tried to challenge him.

"To answer your question," Poe said, grinning, "yes, I have a follow-up call with them tomorrow afternoon."

"Good. Please CC me on any emails with them. Miss Tico—"

"What  _about_ Miss Tico?" Rose asked, a smile caught on her lips. The room turned to grin at Ben, waiting for whatever compliment he would bestow.

Ben pressed his lips together – another habit Rey had noticed – as if he wanted to say a million things he couldn't.

"Your hair... is rather flippy today."

Rose snorted. "'Flippy?' Is that even a compliment?"

Ben frowned at her. "It seems to be the intention of the hairstyle. So, you have succeeded."

Finn laughed outright, and Ben glared down at his paperwork.

Rey smiled along with them for the rest of the meetings, interested to know what kind of "compliments" Ben would toss her way over the next week.

~*~

Poe was absolutely obnoxious about the whole thing, even going so far to put Ben's best "compliments" on the huge white board throughout the day.

_Gwen Phasma is of a helpful height._

_Poe has green on, and that's okay with Ben Solo._

_Finn has hair_.

Poe sent out an email to the whole office, reminding them that if Ben Solo did not address them with a compliment within an email, then by the rules of the bet, they were not required to respond. He CC'd Ben.

Rey smiled, shaking her head. When she received an email at 3pm that afternoon asking for the spreadsheet she'd been working on by end of day, she grinned as she responded:

_Is this directed to me? I feel like it's missing something..._

She shuffled her papers, refreshed her inbox, filed a few copies across the floor, opened her emails, jumped at a message  _ding_  from Finn, made a phone call, refreshed her inbox...

By 3:30pm, Rey was feeling anxious about the lack of response. Was it inappropriate of her? It was almost like... well, it was almost like  _flirting_  which she would never—

Well, not  _never_ , but not in an email, and not with... with her superior.

At quarter to five, Rose cackled at her desk, printing something and running it over to Poe. His eyes devoured the page, a smile spreading. He jumped up and added to the little space left on the board,  _Rose Tico has a loud laugh - that some may find pleasant to listen to_.

Rey turned back to her inbox. Nothing.

So, with a glance to Ben Solo's closed office door, she sent off the spreadsheet and turned off her computer.

~*~

By Wednesday, Poe had started using the white board as a tallied contest between them all. He'd written each employee's name on the board with their best "compliments" listed underneath. They would vote at the end of the week on whose was best.

The only problem with this, was that it was spelled out in black and white (and green dry erase marker) that Rey had received no comments from Ben Solo.

"Rey, what the hell?"

She sipped at her frappuccino and shrugged. "He hasn't spoken to me yet. We don't really interact that much, I guess."

That morning, she got pulled into a conference call in his office. He was already on the phone when she slipped in, flipping her notepad to a spare page. His eyes slide to the half-empty Cookie Dough Frappe in one hand as he spoke to the client in that perfectly condescending tone he could adopt at will. When he deadpanned a comment back to the phone, Rey grinned down at her notes.

He was funny in that sarcastic way that most people didn't know how to read. He never laughed at his own jokes – and maybe he didn't even think he was making jokes – but Rey always smiled, thinking of the poor sap at the other end of it.

When he dismissed her with a nod, she gathered her empty cup and headed back to her desk. Poe stopped her.

"Well? Did he have one for you?" He uncapped the dry erase marker and looked hungrily at her.

"Um," Rey stuttered. She looked at the board. "He said... he said I looked... well-caffeinated."

Poe chuckled and added one solitary line under her name.  _Well-caffeinated_.

~*~

On Thursday morning, she stood in front of the coffee maker as she checked her phone and sipped on a bright red Berry Refresher. She felt someone enter the break room and only looked up when a muttered "Excuse me" rumbled in front of her.

She looked up to see Ben with his black mug (no logo, no picture, just black) hoping to get around her to the coffee pot.

She grinned up at him and said, "Anything you want to say to me?" She tilted her head, her pulse fluttering at the prospect of wrenching a compliment out of him.

As soon as he realized her meaning, his eyes flattened and his jaw snapped shut. He stood there, coffee mug hanging limply from his fingers.

Rey counted her heartbeats as Ben Solo's eyes ran over her face, her clothes, down to her shoes. He came back to her eyes, lips parting—

Then closed again. He swallowed. He looked over her shoulder, searching for an answer.

Rey's cheeks burned.

Finn had hair.

Rose was short.

But Rey was… nothing. Nothing to him.

She felt her skin twitching under his eyes. She was about to slide away from the coffee pot and admit defeat, when suddenly Ben turned and left, coffee mug still empty.

She blinked at the break room door, waiting for… something.

~*~

Poe had the most compliments by Friday morning, by far. He probably bothered Ben most often, therefore increasing the need for compliments.

Rey read over the board as her computer booted up, finding that as the week went on, Ben had gotten better at it.

_Yellow looks good on Rose._

_Phasma is good at her job._

_Finn makes people laugh._

_Poe's new cologne is better than his last._

But still, Rey was  _caffeinated_. And he hadn't even said it himself.

The office door opened, and as soon as Ben strode through, Poe stood up and yelled, "Okay everybody! The last day of Compliments here." He grinned as Ben stopped and rubbed his temple. "This has been an incredible week. I know  _I_  feel much better about myself, now that I know how Ben Solo really feels about me."

The room laughed, and Rey looked down at her keyboard. Yes, now that she knew exactly how Ben Solo felt about her – his  _lack_  of feeling for her – she felt quite different as well.

"But I'd like to ask Ben to step up his game today. Ben, I'd really like for you to choose details about us today that you actually  _like_. Start with me."

Ben's shoulders slumped. He stammered a few things, and finally landed on, "Your shoes look expensive."

Poe chuckled. "And that is a detail that pleases you? That I have expensive shoes on?"

"Sure."

The room laughed.

Poe said, "Okay, now do Rey."

 _Do Rey_  was definitely not the words she needed to hear that morning. She felt her skin flush and she looked down at her lap. "No, he doesn't have to—"

"No, no!" Poe said. "You don't have  _nearly_  enough compliments on the board. Solo," he said, gesturing towards Rey. "Fire away."

Ben had that same look in his eyes from the break room, when he searched her over, finding nothing to say. Rey chewed the inside of her cheek.

"Rey has…" Ben trailed off. "She's…" He blinked quickly, and Rey saw a bead of sweat at his temple.

The office shifted awkwardly, leaning in to hear if he was whispering something.

Ben's eyes drifted over her face. The silence was so loud.

Rey turned back to her desk.

"She sent me a spreadsheet. It was complete."

Finn and Rose laughed, almost a release of tension. Rey smiled at her lap.

"And this spreadsheet," Poe said, leading a horse to water. "You liked it? It was well done?"

Rey heard his tight reply over her shoulder. "Yes."

"So, one might say," Poe stretched, "that Rey does good work?"

"Yes."

"Excellent!" Poe clapped his hands together, miming wiping sweat from his brow like he'd just run a mile.

Poe moved on to Finn.

Rey opened her emails and started working as they continued to push Ben for compliments.

~*~

For the rest of the day she put off giving Ben a final report on the account they'd closed last month. She almost asked Rose to drop it off on his desk for her, but that would have led to more questions.

They voted just before the end of the day. Finn's compliment won:  _Finn is almost adept at his job, and therefore, is not fired._

At 4:55PM, just as everyone was packing up, Rey stood and slunk to Ben's office, ten crisp pages in her hand. She pushed open the propped door, glad to see the office empty, and stretched to drop the report into his inbox.

But the inbox was just near his printer, and on the printer were several freshly printed pages that caught Rey's attention. She swore she saw her name…

She grabbed up the copies and found a list.

_Rey has nice eyes._

_Rey's skin looks soft._

_She smells like the beach at sunset._

_Rey is very focused and succeeds often._

_Rey is the perfect height._

_She is well-liked and gets along with everyone._

_I like her hair when she wears three buns._

_She has a great smile._

_I like her hair when she wears it down._

Rey's eyes scanned the page, finding  _eyes_  and  _hair_  several times. She turned to page two and her eyes widened.

_Her lips are perfect._

_I like her figure._

_Her legs are long and I like it when she wears skirts._

_I want to kiss her neck._

_I like her tits._

_Her breasts would fit perfectly in my palms._

_I like the blue blouse._

_Her tits are probably soft._

_I want to suck on them._

It continued like that for the full page, like he'd gotten side-tracked by what he believed to be God's gift to breasts. A quarter of page three was dedicated to her hips.

Her eyes were stuck on one phrase.

_Her cunt is probably delicious._

She jumped when the door squeaked open and Ben filled the doorway. He blinked at her in surprise, and before he could ask if she needed anything, his eyes dropped to the pages in her hand.

He became, if possible, paler.

"That's not—" He swallowed. "I didn't—" He ripped the pages from her shaking fingers, cleared his throat, and said, "I'm making compliment lists for everyone in the office, and I…"

The flimsy excuse drifted away from him.

"Oh, yeah?" Rey breathed. "What does Finn's say about  _his_  tits?"

Ben closed his eyes, cheeks bright pink, and his ears – those ears – flaming under his hair. Rey watched his face twist in physical pain.

"I… I understand if you wish to report this. You can speak directly with Mr. Dameron, since you obviously should not report it to me…"

He moved away from the doorway, unblocking it, and shifting to the corner of the room. The intention was clear: You're free to go.

He wouldn't meet her eyes as his fingers curled around the pages in his hand, crumpling and destroying them.

Rey felt her blood humming as she remained where she was, watching him shamefully huddle into a corner.

"You know," she said, "all week we've been receiving compliments, but you haven't received any."

His lips pressed together, and he glanced up at her through lowered lashes. She stepped toward him.

"I think you're doing a wonderful job in your mother's absence," Rey said.

He watched her, like a mouse in a corner, waiting for the cat to pounce.

"And I think you're the 'perfect height' as well." She smiled, stepping closer. "And I like the way your ears turn pink."

He frowned, and pushed a hand through his hair, ruffling the waves to hide his ears.

She stopped in front of him, reaching up, and twisting a lock around her fingertips. "And I like your hair."

Something flickered in his eyes. Her studied her face, still as a statue as her hand dropped from his hair to his shoulder.

"Thank you," he rasped. "That's nice of you to say."

She bit her lip, leaned up on her toes, and whispered, "And your lips are perfect too," before pressing her own against his.

He was hesitant, letting her lead, letting her move her mouth against him. She almost pulled away but then his hands landed softly on her waist, and she felt his fingers squeeze.

Rey wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pressing their chests together and drowning in the feeling of his broad torso against hers. As her tongue swept into his mouth, he grunted a small noise, and his hands slid around her back to pull her closer.

"You're a good kisser, Ben." She nipped at him, kissing down his jaw. "That was a compliment, by the way," she hummed.

"Yes, thank you," he croaked. "You… you're good at this… too."

She sucked on his throat, and one of his hands swept up to tangle in her hair. "Was that a compliment?" she whispered into his skin.

"Yeah. Yes."

"Oh, good," she teased, pulling his ear between her teeth. "I liked hearing it from you."

And then, like a rubber band snapping, Ben hands rounded down her thighs, lifting her around his waist, and walking them towards his desk. He set her down on the edge and leaned down to look in her eyes.

"Is this okay?" he asked. She nodded, and he pushed her knees apart to stand between them. His hands cupped her cheeks and he pulled her mouth back to him, no longer tentative or unrushed. "…wanted to do this…" he mumbled.

Rey started unbuttoning his shirt as his mouth moved hotly against her jaw.

"Love your neck," he whispered. And then he was on it, sucking and kissing. Rey gasped, smiling into his shoulder. "Love your hair." And his hand slipped against her scalp, fisting her strands. "Love these tits." And a rough hand slid from her shoulder to her chest, palming her and squeezing.

It was hard to breathe suddenly. She almost laughed at the idea that compliments were  _pouring_  out of Ben Solo as he gripped her and kissed her.

She reached between them and pulled her blouse free from her skirt, pulling up and over her head. Her vision of him disappeared behind the fabric for only a moment, and in that moment, he'd already dropped to his knees, pulling her forward by her ribs and stretching to kiss her chest.

Running her fingers through his hair was like dying and ascending to heaven on every brush of her fingers. Or it could have been the way his lips wrapped around her nipple, shoving aside the lace of her bra. Or it could have been the sounds he made in the back of his throat as he sucked at her.

Who's to say.

She unfastened her bra as he switched to her other nipple, and when she sat on the corner of his desk, topless, he simply stared up at her for a few moments.

"You're beautiful." His voice was husky and low, and she felt her skin burst into pleasurable chills, pulling tight at her breasts. His eyes caught on them again and darkened. "Your tits are perfect. Just what I wanted."

She pressed her lips together, suppressing a smile as his eyes worshipped her torso. He leaned in and kissed at her again, tongue flicking slowly against her and fingers brushing feather-light across her collarbone as his thumb swirled and twisted her hard peak.

His lips popped off of her, and he looked up and said, "Can I go down on you?"

 _Fuck,_  why did he even  _ask_.

She didn't know what her face told him, because her throat was completely dry and uncommunicative, but either way, he turned his attention to her hips.

He pushed her skirt up, hands gliding along her thighs and spreading her wide as he stared down at her core.

She had a fleeting thought at what panties she'd chosen for today before he lowered his lips and started kissing her.

So the panties were okay.

Her fingers dove into his hair, tugging hard whenever he pushed against her clit through the lace. He pulled the fabric aside, and the first sensation of his tongue slipping through her made her cry out.

Her hand slapped over her mouth, and her eyes snapped open to look at the door that was still open from when he'd entered. It was after five so she hoped—

He sucked on her clit. And Rey had to whimper into her hand. Her leg was tossed over his shoulder, and then his fingers stroked at her entrance, swirling and teasing as his tongue lapped at her.

"Oh, god—" She pressed her mouth closed, as he pressed one long, thick finger into her. Her thighs trembled, and Rey could hardly believe she was already coming when she groaned and squeezed her legs around his head.

She fluttered back down to earth, panting heavily, and skin buzzing. Ben Solo looked up at her from the floor, his eyes drifting over her face, her breasts, her stomach.

"I knew it," he said, standing and pulling her face to his.

_Her cunt is probably delicious._

Rey moaned into him, her fingers working for his belt – his shirt long-forgotten. He couldn't stop cupping her breasts, not even when she pulled him out of his pants and started to stroke him. He groaned, but still her breasts filled his palms, his fingers plucking and rubbing.

Rey pulled his hips close, pressing him to her entrance, and wrapped her body around his. This caught his attention.

He stared down at her, breathing unsteady, and when she bit her lip and nodded, he pushed inside.

Her head dropped to his shoulder. She was being split open, filled in ways she'd never—

She groaned, realizing he was still playing with her tits, fingering the buds and sweeping circles around them. Her walls fluttered, and she cried out, feeling no more room inside her for him.

His cock dragged inside of her, shallow thrusts that elicited little grunts from low in his chest. And then one hand left her breast, reaching down and bending her knee up to his ribs. He slid all the way in, and Rey gasped, feeling impossibly opened, stretched beyond her wildest dreams.

Her eyes were squeezed shut when he started a slow roll of his hips, never pulling out too far, always returning to hit something deep inside of her.

She was building again. About to toss herself over the edge. And he still just pumped slowly, deeply.

His hand on her jaw, tilting her head up, and she opened her eyes to find Ben staring down at her mouth, his own lips parted and puffing air against her forehead.

"I knew you'd feel like this." He pressed his mouth to hers, but not before whispering, "And that's a compliment."

Rey squeezed him, her control snapping and twisting around her like flames in the wind. Her jaw opened wide as she cracked, his tongue drinking down her screams as he finally jerked his hips forward, and fucked her through the most insane orgasm she'd ever—

Maybe more than one.

Maybe thousands as his fingers gripped her hips and his lips moved over hers and his cock bottomed out inside of her tight cunt with hard thrusts.

He grunted and gasped, pulling her close with one arm winding around her waist, the other rising to roll her nipple again. She wrapped her legs around him as he came, pressing bruises into her breast and heaving air into her mouth.

She shivered, pressing small kisses against his lips. He caught his breath, pulling back to look at her, sweeping her hair away from her face.

She smiled, eyes glazed, and said, "Now, I want you to write one of those compliments on the white board."

His eyes warmed, and he grinned down at her.

"Any favorites?"

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Не способен сказать ничего хорошего](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23259763) by [AlterE](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlterE/pseuds/AlterE)




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